Gov. Bruce Rauner and JB Pritzker to Face Off in Illinois
March 21, 2018 by admin
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But Mr. Rauner, 61, survived a challenge from Jeanne Ives, a Republican legislator and Army veteran who took a hard-right stance on social issues and attacked him for being insufficiently conservative.
Mr. Rauner appealed for unity in a speech on Tuesday night, imploring Republicans, independents and Democrats to give him another term in office to institute needed change.
“Let’s work together to bridge the divide,” he said. “The election in November will be a choice, a clear choice, a choice between someone who will stand up to the machine and someone who has long been part of it. Between someone who will fight for hardworking families and someone who will protect the political insiders.”
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Mr. Pritzker, who has donated close to $70 million to his own campaign, fell short of 50 percent of the Democratic vote, but still outpaced Chris Kennedy, a businessman and a son of Robert F. Kennedy, and Daniel Biss, a suburban state senator.
In an acceptance speech before a crowd of supporters here on Tuesday night, Mr. Pritzker, 53, called for universal health care, fair wages, protections for labor unions and the legalization of marijuana.
He vowed to be a champion for the needy, for children, and for immigrants who have come to Illinois seeking a better life.
“This campaign is about a fight for economic security, about jobs and wages,” Mr. Pritzker said. “I choose to fight for the struggling. I choose to fight for the black and brown communities across our state, for the one thing, the one and only thing you’ve asked for for so long — fairness.”
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“Are you ready for a fight?” he said, drawing wild applause.
Mr. Pritzker and Mr. Rauner are fighting to lead a state with deeply entrenched problems. Whoever wins will have to contend with Illinois’s vastly underfunded pension systems; worries about residents fleeing the state; and a sagging economy downstate, where manufacturing jobs have disappeared, leaving many residents unemployed and financially struggling.
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Both men have moved in elite Chicago circles of business and philanthropy for decades, yet they did not share a personal relationship. In an interview last month, Mr. Pritzker said he barely knew Mr. Rauner, and was better acquainted with his wife, Diana Rauner, who runs a public-private partnership focused on early childhood.
Mr. Rauner, a native of Chicago’s wealthy north suburbs who made a fortune as the chairman of a private-equity firm, presented himself to voters in 2013 as an outsider, a Harley-riding political newcomer with a folksy affect who would fix Illinois’s financial problems and make the state more attractive to companies.
Mr. Rauner’s tenure has been marked by a budget impasse that paralyzed Illinois, especially social-service agencies, arts organizations and public universities that depend on state funding. It was finally resolved last July when Democrats in the State Legislature overrode Mr. Rauner’s veto, ending the stalemate and passing a budget.
Illinois Primary Election Results
See full results and maps from the Illinois primaries.
During his first run for office, he rarely mentioned social issues like abortion and managed to attract sizable support from independents and Democrats. As governor, he angered religious conservatives by signing a bill that expanded abortion coverage for women on Medicaid.
Last week, he vetoed a piece of legislation that would have required gun dealers to obtain state licenses, a move that was widely seen as an appeal to Republicans in rural downstate Illinois.
Ms. Ives, a member of the Illinois House, positioned herself as the true conservative in the race. But she trailed Mr. Rauner in fund-raising, raising $4 million to his $100 million. She criticized Mr. Rauner over abortion rights, immigration and his handling of a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak at a state-run veterans home that has left 13 people dead since 2015.
In the campaign’s final days, the Democratic Governors Association sneaked into the fray, running a television ad attacking Ms. Ives as “too conservative” — presumably a veiled attempt to give Ms. Ives a boost in the hopes that she could overtake Mr. Rauner in the primary.
In the closely watched congressional primary, the challenger, Ms. Newman, drew on Democrats’ appetite for more confrontational and liberal officeholders as she gave Mr. Lipinski the biggest scare he has had since he was elected in 2004.
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Wielding support from an array of progressive groups, Ms. Newman assailed Mr. Lipinski, a conservative Democrat, for his opposition to such liberal priorities as abortion rights and the Affordable Care Act.
After attempting to ignore the challenge, Mr. Lipinski scrambled to put down the insurgency with a late blitz of commercials and mailers highlighting his more orthodox positions and roots in Chicago’s so-called Bungalow Belt.
He succeeded his father in the seat, which has sent a Lipinski to Washington since 1982. But the same southwest side and suburban Chicago precincts that were mainstays of the city’s Democratic machine are quickly evolving. A growing Hispanic population and the influx of upscale white voters have transformed what were once working-class Irish and Polish neighborhoods. The remaining, machine-aligned precincts in the city helped him compete against Ms. Newman.
“I would like Mr. Lipinski to have a very painful evening, so we’re going to wait,” Ms. Newman told supporters after taking the stage around 10:45 p.m. local time, adding only that she would say more on Wednesday.
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Weinstein Company Files for Bankruptcy and Voids Nondisclosure Pacts
March 20, 2018 by admin
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“No one should be afraid to speak out or coerced to stay quiet,” the company said, going on to thank “the courageous individuals who have already come forward.”
“Your voices have inspired a movement for change across the country and around the world,” the company added. “The company regrets that it cannot undo the damage Harvey Weinstein caused, but hopes that today’s events will mark a new beginning.”
In a statement of his own, Mr. Schneiderman called the company’s decision to release any victims and witnesses from nondisclosure agreements “a watershed moment for efforts to address the corrosive effects of sexual misconduct in the workplace.” Mr. Schneiderman added that he welcomed “the parties’ efforts to preserve jobs and pursue justice for victims.”
Spokeswomen for Mr. Weinstein have denied that he ever engaged in “nonconsensual sex.” He has spent recent months seeking treatment for sex addiction and anger management, according to his representatives.
Mr. Weinstein, who is now a Hollywood pariah, has an array of legal problems that are separate from the bankruptcy case. Prosecutors in New York, Los Angeles and London are pursuing possible criminal cases against him. A lawsuit filed last month by Mr. Schneiderman will continue. Mr. Weinstein also faces additional civil suits, including one filed by the British actress Kadian Noble, who is suing him for sex trafficking.
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But the bankruptcy filing does halt an array of lawsuits against the company, including those filed by women who contend that the studio facilitated misconduct by Mr. Weinstein. Those women will now have to line up behind the studio’s secured creditors — who themselves are likely to be paid pennies on the dollar, according to bankruptcy lawyers.
The upshot is that women alleging abuse may now have a harder time recovering damages.
The filing, which was expected, ended a chaotic five-month effort to keep the Weinstein Company afloat.
In the fall, after The New York Times and The New Yorker revealed allegations of sexual harassment and rape, Mr. Weinstein’s younger brother and partner in the studio, Bob Weinstein, unsuccessfully scrambled to line up bridge loans to keep the company operating. He then sold “Paddington 2” rights to Warner Bros., which bought time but resulted in a lawsuit.
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By early February, to the disbelief of many in the film industry, it seemed as if the Weinstein Company had found a way forward. A group of investors, including the billionaire Ron Burkle and Lantern Capital, had made an offer to buy most of the studio’s assets, which include the TV series “Project Runway” and the rights to “Lion,” “Django Unchained” and about 275 other films.
The investor group, managed by Maria Contreras-Sweet, who ran the Small Business Administration under President Barack Obama, had offered to pay off what it believed was the Weinstein Company’s debt — about $225 million. In return, it would receive most of the studio’s assets, which Ms. Contreras-Sweet planned to use to start a new, female-led film company.
But then Mr. Schneiderman threw the brakes on a sale, filing a lawsuit alleging that the studio and the Weinstein brothers had violated various state and city laws. He also said the proposed sale to Ms. Contreras-Sweet’s group was unacceptable because it did not adequately compensate victims, protect employees and ensure that those who enabled or perpetuated Mr. Weinstein’s conduct would not be rewarded.
The Weinstein Company and the investor group moved to address those concerns, but the studio’s board announced on Feb. 25 that it would file for bankruptcy because Ms. Contreras-Sweet had not delivered on a promise to fund the studio’s operations until a transaction was completed.
Mr. Schneiderman was able to get the deal back on track earlier this month, when he hosted a meeting between the two sides at his offices. He did so after the buyers and sellers had committed to various terms, including establishing a victims’ fund worth up to $90 million. The Weinstein brothers, who jointly own about 42 percent of the studio, would receive no cash from the sale.
But the sale collapsed a few days later after the investor group discovered that the studio had an additional $55 million to $65 million in debt.
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